The United States railroad system consists of over 750 railroads running on 140,000 miles of track. Every day trains travel across more than 212,000 highway/rail so-called grade crossings. A grade crossing is a location where a public highway, road, street, or private roadway, including associated sidewalks, and pathways, crosses railroad tracks at grade, i.e., at the same level as the street. There are also more than 38,000 locations were railroad tracks and roadways cross at different levels.
According to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), there are about 270 deaths a year at public and private grade crossings. These deaths include pedestrians, but are predominantly due to train-versus-vehicle collisions. Largely through the FRA's safety programs, the number of fatalities has gone down by 54 percent over the last two decades. According to the FRA, trespassing along railroad rights-of-way is the leading cause of rail-related pedestrian deaths in America. Nationally, more than 431 trespass fatalities occur each year, and nearly as many injuries, the vast majority of which are preventable. Whether in a vehicle at a rail-crossing or as a pedestrian walking in the railroad right-of way, the reality is that nearly every 180 minutes in America, someone is hit by a train. Combined, highway/rail-crossing and trespasser deaths account for 95 percent of all rail-related deaths and most of these deaths are avoidable. Being struck by a train almost always means death for the motorist, but that can often be only the beginning of a larger, cascading disaster as the locomotive and cars of the train, one after another, derail. Regardless of whether the train in question is carrying crude oil, chlorine, or passengers, the effects of that initial collision continue long after that impact. What is needed is some more-effective means of preventing such collisions from occurring in the first place. The present invention prevents trains from colliding with vehicles at all rail crossings equipped with a sensor scale triggered to brake the approaching train.
Several references in the prior art show train safety systems. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,554,982, 5,699,986 and 5,864,304 all show various systems which try to alert a train engineer of a vehicle, person, or blockage on the railroad tracks and try to allow time for train stoppage before collision. However, none of these patents teaches the vehicle safety railroad crossing system of the present invention.
Here in the United States and World Wide there are three (3) basic types of railroad crossings. These three types are as follows:
A. The first type of crossing is a sign with no lights or no bells. The sign simply states “Railroad Crossing” or uses an abbreviation such as “RR Crossing” or similar.
B. The second type of crossing is a pole with a sign, as above, but also with a flashing red light and/or a ringing bell to signify that a train is approaching.
C. The third type of railroad crossing is the gate system where gates come down and block the crossing, along with flashing lights and ringing bells to alert on-comers that a train is approaching.
For all 3 types of crossings there must be some type of a ramp to get over the tracks. Otherwise the vehicle will always get stuck in the tracks. A solar panel can be used for power in areas where there is no electric power line available. This is useful in condition type A, mentioned above. It will be understood that in conditions B and C, an electrical hook up at the crossing to power the gates and bells is always necessary. At a point down the track about a half of a mile or more, the train reaches a certain point and trips a switch that powers the gates to go down and activates the bells and lights to signal to cars or trucks of the oncoming train. Theoretically, vehicles cannot enter the crossing once the gates are down. Sometimes, however, vehicles get stuck at the crossing while the gates are down. There is nothing in the prior art that detects a vehicle or other object located in the middle of an intersection on top of the tracks at a rail crossing and trips the brakes of the train before the train collides with the vehicle stuck in the railroad crossing.